The Hindu : Business : FM hopeful of 7.5 p.c. growth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 01, 2006

Business

Business

FM hopeful of 7.5 p.c. growth

Special Correspondent

`Confidence stems from rebound in farm growth'

NEW DELHI: Enthused over the scale-up in GDP (gross domestic product) growth for 2004-05 to 7.5 per cent from 6.9 per cent by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday expressed confidence and hope that the overall growth during the current fiscal too, would be in the region of 7.5 per cent.

Speaking to newspersons here following the CSO quick estimates' upward revision in the growth rate for the year on account of change in the base year from 1993-94 to 1999-2000, Mr. Chidambaram said: "Earlier, I had said the growth would be seven per cent. Now, I am confident and hopeful that it would be close to 7.5 per cent in the second year also [of the UPA Government's regime].''

Mr. Chidambaram attributed the spurt in economic growth to the "Government's prudent fiscal policy, splendid inflation control by the Reserve Bank of India and efficient implementation of projects and programmes.''

Stock markets

The Finance Minister noted that the fact that the economy managed to achieve a growth of 7.5 per cent in 2004-05, even in the wake of a poor farm growth of 0.7 per cent owing to deficient monsoon rainfall, showed that the sectors that contributed the most were manufacturing goods and services.

PTI reports

Asserting that the Sensex reflected high business confidence in the economy, Mr. Chidambaram said that the movements in the market were orderly and that the government and SEBI were keeping a careful watch. But Sensex was only an indicator and not the barometer of the economy, he said.

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